Reply to "DC really has School Chance, not School Choice"

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Reply to ""DC really has School Chance, not School Choice""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I guess the big question in my mind is about the author's assumption that a change in a school's demographics DOESN'T equal a change in a school's "quality". Is a charter that has 30% FARMS one year going to be as good if it has 60% FARMS the next year. The leadership and teachers would remain the same, but will the school experience? (I would guess that test scores would at least initially go down.) And that's the million dollar question for me about controlled choice. It seems like most people on DCUM assume that school quality will suffer with such a change in demographics.[/quote]

The point is, no one has found what the "tipping point" is.  With the direction DC is going with gentrification, most successful current charters already are and will increasingly be in middle and upper class neighborhoods.  Without some intervention or tinkering with admissions, the class balance of these schools will keep trending way over to higher SES.

[b]No one knows what % of FARMS students aligns with bigger struggles in maintaining the quality of instruction and school environment.[/b]  But some schools currently have 17% FARMS, not 60%, and are trending even further down.

I don't see anyone making assumptions that economic diversity doesn't affect the quality of the classroom (although [b]I thoroughly agree with the author that economoic and ethnic diversity IMPROVES the quality of education, as compared with a lack of economic and ethnic diversity[/b] - in BOTH directions (i.e. I wouldn't want my kid in a private super high SES school any more than I'd want him in a totally under-resourced, underperforming public school).  I also see no asusmptions that if you dramatically increase the % of students at higher risk for educational challenges, you don't need to increase/change your staffing and what supports are available at the school.  I don't see anyone saying that, so not sure where you're getting that from.  All the author says is that some diversity is really important.[/quote]

PP, these statements seem somewhat contradictory, although I suppose a lot rests on your personal definition of "diversity". Is a school diverse if it is 50/50 Caucasian/African American with no Latinos? Is diversity a spectrum of SES levels? Does a kid who is Asian bring "diversity" to a school? Does a kid whose parents are from a different country bring "diversity" to a school? All that I do know is that I think it is utter BS to tell me that a policy that may change my kid's school from 30% low SES to 60% SES is going to improve her quality of education. That's a terrible thing to say (write), and it doesn't mean that we would pull out of the public education system and not work to make things better. It just means that I think the folks advocating for these changes are not being completely honest.
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